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Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Daily 5 Listen to reading using IPads

Our iPad adventures continue and we have started using our Ipads during Daily 5 time. When I first approached the administration about using Ipads in my classrooms this is where I believed we would use them the most.

There are many apps that allow your students to read and interact with books on the ipad. For intermediate students there are endless options for free or nearly free resources. In french immersion primary however the resources are more limited. There are many picture books available for the ipad, unfortunately many of them cost money and only include 1 book per app. There are some other options for getting books of the ipad however. In my class I am using two apps: Itubelist and Rover.

Itubelist allows you to create playlists for students. They can watch videos without commercials and are restricted to the videos you pick for them. Students can then read along while watching books online.

The app is free to download but it costs $0.99 for the full version. It was well worth the upgrade price.

For a few pre-made French YouTube channels to add to your playlists check this blog post by Mme Belle Feuille.

The second app we use for listen to reading is Rover. Although the Ipad restricts access to websites that feature flash, Rover allows you to get around that limitation. This means that all those online books that you could not access before can now be uses with Rover.

The app comes pre-loaded with many popular education websites and also allows you to access and bookmark other favorites.

What did I learn at school today? You can use Ipads for listen to reading time and it doesn't have to be expensive. Listen to reading is one of my students favorite activities. They love to have the chance to interact with and listen to stories. Do you have any favorite online book sites? Any good listen to reading apps that you are using?